I recently got a new Eee PC and installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 Karmic Koala (which is going to be renamed to Ubuntu Netbook Edition starting with Lucid) and even though UNR is already somewhat optimized, I don't like how some things work and also there is room for a lot more optimizations. I would like to share with you these optimizations, all with screen real estate and low power consumption in mind. A part of this article is for EeePC only, but most work on any netbook!

Let's get started (read on - huge post ahead)!

1. The terminal

Since doing a lot of things requires a terminal (not because you can't do it without a terminal, but because it's a lot easier!), we need to optimize it. Actually, we won't use the normal terminal because that would require to go to the menu, then Accessories, etc. We could create a shortcut on the panel for it, but we would loose some precious space.

That's why, we will use Guake, a drop-down terminal for Gnome (Quake style) which can be fully customizable (make it transparent, change it's height, etc). What I like about Guake is that all you have to do is press F12 and it comes down on the screen, write your commands and it disappears.

Let's install it:

sudo apt-get install guake

Or click here to install it. Because I don't remember if it was in the official Ubuntu repositories, I will also give you an alternate download link from Softpedia (it has an Ubuntu .deb).

Now let's put it into the star-up applications. Go to the main menu > System, scroll down to Startup Applications, launch it and click "Add", under "Name" enter "Guake" and under "command" enter "guake" (all letters lowercase, without the quotes).

Now launch it for the first time from the Accessories in the main menu and press F12. Now right click it so we can configure it:

under the General tab, check "Stay on top", "Hide on lose focus" (so it automatically closes when clicking outside Guake), and "Show tab bar" (so we can easily use multiple tabs). Also, drag the "Main window size" bar to about 1/3.

under the Appearence tab you will have a slide where you can set the transparency. I have set mine to 1/3.

on the "Keyboard shortcuts" tab, modify just the command for opening a new tab, to "Ctrl + T" - Firefox style, it's easier to remember.

2. Improve your netbook battery life

PowerTOP is an application that allows you to view information about programs that are misbehaving while your computer is idle. With this information, you can then make changes and optimize your computer to squeeze more juice out of your laptop battery.

PowerTOP not only can tell you what's consuming your battery, but it also suggests a solution, like disabling a certain service (see screenshot at step 1).

I don't like the built-in Window-picker-applet in Ubuntu Netbook Remix:

because it doesn't have a "restore" and "minimize" buttons which I find to be very inconvenient.

(DockBarX and Namebar in action)

We have already covered installing Namebar and DockbarX in Ubuntu, so head over to that post for details.

4. Tweaking Maximus

Maximus has a really annoying thing: it maximizes every window you open, even small windows which should not be maximized. The weird thing is this only occurs on my PC, and not on my EeePC, but in case it also occurs on your netbook, here is what you need to do:

Press Alt + F2, enter gconf-editor, navigate to: /apps/maximus/no_maximize and set it to "true" (Do not automatically maximize newly opened windows. If undecorate is set, will still undecorate maximised windows.)

5. Optimize the Gnome Panel time display

The time and date can take a lot of space. To remove the date, right click it, select "Preferences" and on the "General" tab, uncheck "Show the date".

So if you want to remove the Gnome Panel, you can't just "do it". Here is how to remove the Gnome Panel (to have 0 Gnome Panels). Open a terminal (or press F12 to bring down Guake), and enter this command:

If you want to go one step further, you can use an even tinier navigation bar: if you put icons, urlbar, or searchbar into the Menu toolbar in Small Icons mode, they will shrink dramatically. Also, favicons in the Bookmarks toolbar and Bookmarks and History menus shrink in Small Icons mode. You can also add a special Teeny toolbar as well. View > Toolbars > Customize > Add New Toolbar > "teeny" or "teeny2" > move icons, urlbar, searchbar to the "teeny" (that name is absolutely necessary) bar while still in Customize mode. Be sure to use all lowercase letters or it won't work. Toolbar buttons, urlbar and search bar will shrink in Small Icons mode in this toolbar.

That will basically bring your navigation toolbar to this:

c) Remove the Firefox/Swiftfox menubar and replace it with a single icon, by using the Compact Menu add-on.

d) Remove the "Stop", "Home" and "Bookmark launcher" icons from the navigation toolbar. You can also remove the Bookmarks toobar:

- To remove the "Stop", "Home", and "Bookmark launcher" buttons (icons), right click on any of them, select "Customize" and drag and drop them from the navigation toolbar to the newly opened dialog. You can also check the "Use small icons" button.

Alternatively, you could use Eee Control, a similar application which you can download from here.

10. Wireless - EeePC 1005HA only

Since I own an 1005HA EeePC, I can only post about it when it comes to troubleshooting. On my EeePC 1005HA, the wireless works out of the box, but connection is somewhat flaky. However, this was fixed installing linux-backports-modules-karmic: